Woman details relationship with Avila

JOHN HALL - Staff Writer

SANTA ANA —— A former girlfriend of the Lake Elsinore man
accused of killing 5-year-old Samantha Runnion told jurors
Wednesday that she broke up with Alejandro Avila because he wanted
to be alone with her young daughter.

Avila, 30, of Lake Elsinore, is on trial in a Santa Ana
courtroom, charged with the kidnap, sexual assault and murder of
5-year-old Samantha Runnion. He faces the death penalty if
convicted.

Samantha was abducted from outside her Stanton home on July 15,
2002. The little girl's nude body was found the next day along a
quiet stretch of Killen Trail, not far from Ortega Highway, in the
hills west of Lake Elsinore.

The Stanton townhouse complex where Samantha was living when she
was kidnapped is also where Lizbeth Veglahn's former husband lived
in 1997 when Avila allegedly molested the couple's then-7-year-old
daughter.

Outside the courtroom, Assistant District Attorney David Brent
talked about the importance of that connection he hopes the jury
will see.

"There are two ways to look at it," he said. "The most sinister
is that (Avila) went back there to look for (the girl who says she
was molested). The other, the prosecutor said, could be that Avila
was familiar with the place and knew there would be children
there.

"Something was drawing him there," Brent said. "Either the
memory of the previous molestations or the girl herself."

Veglahn testified Wednesday that, after meeting Avila in the
summer of 1996, the two moved in together several months later and
lived together for about three years.

She said her daughter —— then 9 years old —— told her in
December 1999 that Avila had molested her numerous times two years
earlier.

Veglahn and her husband were not married at that time and the
alleged molestations happened when her daughter would come to Lake
Elsinore to visit her.

She called Lake Elsinore police and Avila was later charged with
molesting that girl, as well as another the same age. But in 2001,
a Riverside County jury acquitted Avila of the charges.

The eight-man, four-woman Orange County jury is being allowed to
hear testimony about the two prior molestation cases even though
Avila was acquitted. Orange County Superior Court Judge William
Froeberg ruled before the trial started that the jury could hear
about the previous cases only to establish whether he has a
predisposition to commit sex-related offenses. The jury is also
being told of the acquittals.

Brent, who is prosecuting Avila in the murder case, has
previously said that the earlier molestation allegations against
Avila show a possible motive for his killing Samantha.

In opening statements Monday, Brent said it's possible Avila
killed Samantha after kidnapping and sexually assaulting her so he
wouldn't have to face another molestation trial.

During her testimony Wednesday, Veglahn told jurors about
concerns she had about her relationship back when she and Avila
were dating and living together. Veglahn said Avila showed "a
little more favoritism toward my daughter than my boys." She also
said Avila angered easily.

Veglahn confirmed on the stand that she once told police she
considered their relationship "odd," and that he told her he "liked
blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls" and asked her to dress up in
"junior-style clothing."

Veglahn was also asked by the prosecutor about where her
then-7-year-old daughter would sleep when she would come visit her
and Avila.

"With us," she replied.

"Whose idea was that?" Brent asked.

With a tone of disgust and a sigh in her voice, Veglahn said,
"His." She added that she didn't think it was appropriate. She also
said the reason she broke up with Avila was because he wanted to be
alone with her daughter.

Veglahn's now-14-year-old daughter, who has a different last
name, also testified Wednesday. She is the third teenage girl who
has detailed for the Orange County jury how Avila allegedly
molested them when they were children. Two other girls testified
Tuesday.

One of those girls, also now 14, reported the alleged crimes to
police and Avila was acquitted by the same Riverside County jury in
the 2001 case which involved Veglahn's daughter. The third girl
didn't report the alleged molestations until after Avila was
arrested on suspicion of Samantha's murder.

Veglahn's daughter told jurors that Avila touched her vagina
with his hand more than 50 times and with his penis more than 30
times over about a one-year period.

Brent asked the girl why she didn't tell anyone about what was
happening until December 1999, more than two years after the
molestations started.

"I was scared," the teen said, clearing her throat then
continuing, "that I wouldn't be able to see my mother or Avila
would hurt me or my mother."

When asked by Brent if Avila ever threatened her during the
molestations, the girl said he did.

The teen periodically glanced toward Avila during her 90 minutes
on the witness stand, but then would quickly turn her gaze
elsewhere.

She stayed composed throughout her testimony, but broke down in
tears during a break while jurors were out of the courtroom. Erin
Runnion, Samantha's mother, hugged the girl, then rubbed her back
while offering words of encouragement.

Paul Zalewski, one of Avila's attorneys, attacked many specifics
of the girl's testimony, asking her about discrepancies between
what she said Wednesday and what she testified to in the Riverside
County trial or what she told authorities during that
investigation.

He questioned her repeatedly about differences such as dates,
the number of times she was molested and whether or not Avila
videotaped one or all of the molestations.

Riverside County sheriff's Detective Eric Davis also testified
and told jurors he interviewed Avila after the molestations
described by the teen girl Wednesday were reported to
authorities.

During the January 2000 interviews, Avila repeatedly denied
touching the girl's vagina, Davis said. Avila later, however,
admitted he had touched the girl there about 12 times while bathing
her and about six times between her legs when putting lotion on her
after trips to the beach, the detective said.

Testimony in the trial is scheduled to resume Monday at Central
Justice Center in Santa Ana.